Archive for
August, 2008 
Have you heard of Giovanni Calone, the famous Italian singer/songwriter? No? No one? Not surprised. Neither have most Italians. How about Massimo Ranieri? How about a show of hands? Ah yes, I see that quite a few have heard of him. Well, they are actually one and the same person. You see, when Giovanni Calone started getting serious about his musical career, he knew he needed a stronger name. One that spoke of greatness and superiority. And “Giovanni” just wasn’t strong enough. So Giovanni became Massimo, and the rest is history.
In this culture class, we’ll be learning about the Italian first names Massimo/Massima and Roberto/Roberta. We’ll be finding out what these names mean, and some famous people that had these names. For more in Italian culture and language learning, come to ItalianPod101.com!
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It’s hard to really get a feel for Venice without coming here. We have canals. Gondolas. History. Unless you’re willing to flood the streets with seawater we don’t think that you’ll get the real atmosphere. But two parts of Venice that are easily reproduced elsewhere are the Italian language and Venetian food. We’ve combined the two in today’s audio lesson about Venetian food. (We also combining them at lunch today, talking Italian during our traditional Venetian meal!) In this series, we’ll use all Italian blogs to explore the people and places of Italy. Today immerse yourself in Italian, and learn about Venice and its food, while learning Italian. For the English translation, review exercises, and for easier courses on Italian, visit ItalianPod101.com! Ciao!
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If you don’t know what a conditional sentence is, don’t worry, you’re reading one right now. If you’d like to learn how to form conditional sentences in Italian, come to ItalianPod101.com . When you listen to today’s lesson, you’ll hear a clear and concise explanation on how to form them. If you have any questions, be sure to ask Cinzia or Marco in the message boards. And if you’re still not sure what a conditional sentence is, you’ve just finished reading four of them. As we mentioned, in today’s lesson we’ll be learning Italian conditional sentences. These will help to take your Italian language skills to the next level. For more Italian language learning material, including easier courses, online review questions and the accompanying PDF, come to Italianpod101.com! 
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Anna just came back home after a Saturday evening watching a soccer match with Peter and she is having a conversation about Peter with Elena. Anna jokingly asked about Peter’s brother again, and he didn’t seem too pleased about it. Boys are always a topic of conversation when tra ragazze… 
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Learn Italian with ItalianPod101.com! You and your friend sprint into the closest Italian café you can find, still gasping for breath. The barista greets you heartily in Italian, saying, “The two of you look like you could use something to drink!” You tell the barista in Italian, “Yes, we could! We’ve been running for the last five minutes.” The barista asks you in Italian, “Why were you running?” You respond in Italian, “Well, we were shopping in the market, and my friend here broke a piece of pottery. The shopkeeper wanted us to pay for it, but she wouldn’t just take the twenty euros it was worth…she wanted us to pay one hundred euros! We told her she was crazy in Italian, left twenty euros, and walked away, and then her son came chasing after us! We decided not to hang around and ran out of the market as fast as we could!” The barista leans over to you and whispers in Italian, “That’s a great story. Is that really what happened?”
Learning Italian with ItalianPod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Italian! This Italian Newbie lesson will teach you how to form and use the imperfect tense of the irregular Italian verb that means “to be.” We’ll tell you the reasons you may want to use this Italian verb tense, and we’ll also share some background about St. Joseph, one of the Italians’ favorite saints. Visit us at ItalianPod101.com where you will find many more fantastic Italian lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!
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